Praise God!
This post has the story behind the Doxology I grew up singing at Bethel United Church.
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I was christened as an infant at Bethel United Church just outside Omemee, Ontario. It was here that I first found Jesus and learned of His Father's amazing love for us all. I have many wonderful happy memories of my experiences there as a small child.
Bethel United Church
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I learned to read by standing on the pew between my mother and my sister, singing along to the hymns and following along in the hymn book. One hymn that was sung almost every week was the Doxology, so it may well have been the first thing I learned to read. The Doxology was sung as the collection plate was brought to the alter after the collection was taken up.
Today, I was blessed with the opportunity to discover the story behind those old familiar words in a free eBook -The Story of the Hymns and Tunes by Theron Brown and Hezekiah Butterworth - Free Ebook (gutenberg.org) I had no idea that this hymn was so old!
The tune we sang it to was very dour and seemed like more of an admonishment to truculent tithers than a song of praise.
The Story Behind "Praise God From Whom All Blessings Flow"
Here is the story behind the above Doxology Hymn we used at our "Little Brown Church in the Vale"- Bethel United Church, in Emily Township, Ontario, Canada.
The author of our Doxology, Reverend Thomas Ken, was born in Berkhampstead, Hertfordshire, England in July 1637, and was educated at Winchester School, Hertford College, and New College, Oxford. In 1662 he took holy orders, and seventeen years later King Charles II. appointed him chaplain to his sister Mary, Princess of Orange.
Later the king, just before his death, made him Bishop of Bath and Wells.
Like John the Baptist, and Bourdaloue, and Knox, he was a faithful spiritual monitor and adviser during all his days at court.
“I must go in and hear Ken tell me my faults,” the king used to say at chapel time. The “good little man” (as he called the bishop) never lost the favour of the dissipated monarch. This. in itself is quite remarkable as Charles II was well known for his extramarital affairs and claiming illegitimate children.
Under the next king -James, Ken was a loyal subject, though once arrested as one of the “seven bishops” for his opposition to the king's religion, and he kept his oath of allegiance so firmly that it cost him his place. William III. deprived him of his bishopric, and he retired in poverty to a home kindly offered him by Lord Viscount Weymouth in Longleat, near Frome, in Somersetshire, where he spent a serene and beloved old age. He died at. seventy-four, March 17, 1711, and was carried to his grave, according to his request, by “six of the poorest men in the parish.”
His great doxology is the refrain or final stanza of each of his three long hymns, “Morning,” “Evening” and “Midnight,” printed in a Prayer Manual for the use of the students of Winchester College. The “Evening Hymn” drew scenic inspiration, it is told, from the lovely view in Horningsham Park at “Heaven's Gate Hill,” while walking to and from church.
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About This Author
Sister Su is grateful to God for keeping her alive. She writes on several blogs, has a YouTube channel and is most easily reached through Twitter @Sister_Su
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